Emerging Adults' Relationship with Caregivers and their Romantic Attachment: Quality Communication Helps.

Objectives: Caregivers play an influential role in their child's romantic attachment representations in emerging adulthood. In the current research, we explored one possible mechanism underlying this connection, the quality of caregiver-child communication about romantic relationships as indexed by...

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Published in:Journal of Child & Family Studies Vol. 28; no. 12; pp. 3412 - 3425
Main Authors: Luerssen, Anna, Shane, Jacob, Budescu, Mia
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Dec2019
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Dec2019
      vid: 28
      iid: 12
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      pub: Springer Nature
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        139545886
        10.1007/s10826-019-01523-4
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        atl: Emerging Adults' Relationship with Caregivers and their Romantic Attachment: Quality Communication Helps.
      aug:
        au:
          Luerssen, Anna
          Shane, Jacob
          Budescu, Mia
        affil:
          Lehman College, City University of New York, Bronx, NY, USA
          Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY, USA
      su:
        Anxiety
        Attachment behavior
        Avoidance (Psychology)
        Communication
        Human sexuality
        Psychological stress
        Family relations
        Social support
        Confidence intervals
        Structural equation modeling
      sug:
        subj:
          Anxiety
          Attachment behavior
          Avoidance (Psychology)
          Communication
          Human sexuality
          Psychological stress
          Family relations
          Social support
          Other Individual and Family Services
          Confidence intervals
          Structural equation modeling
      keyword:
        Emerging adults
        Family relationships
        Romantic attachment
        Romantic relationships
        Emerging adults
        Family relationships
        Romantic attachment
        Romantic relationships
      ab: Objectives: Caregivers play an influential role in their child's romantic attachment representations in emerging adulthood. In the current research, we explored one possible mechanism underlying this connection, the quality of caregiver-child communication about romantic relationships as indexed by emerging adults' perceptions of the frequency, comfortableness, and helpfulness of these conversations with their female caregiver. Methods: Survey data from a sample of emerging adults enrolled in an American university were analyzed with structural equation modeling to evaluate this mediational prediction using causal steps and bootstrapping of indirect effects approaches. Results: A higher quality caregiver-child relationship (higher support, less strain) was associated with higher quality communication about romantic relationships, and this communication was associated with lower attachment anxiety (indirect effect from support: β = −0.085; 95% CI [−0.139, −0.036], p = 0.001; indirect from strain: β = 0.020; 95% CI [0.005, 0.040], p = 0.026) and attachment avoidance (indirect effect from support: β = −0.094; 95% CI [−0.151, −0.043], p = 0.001; indirect effect from strain: β = 0.022; 95% CI [0.006, 0.043], p = 0.021). Fit statistics and indirect effects for the hypothesized model were compared and found superior to a variety of alternative models. Conclusions: The quality of emerging adults' conversations with their female caregiver about romantic relationships mediated the relationship between caregiver-child relationship quality and romantic attachment representations. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of romantic relationships and romantic attachment and the connection between the caregiver-child relationship and these outcomes in emerging adulthood.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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